Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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I’m not kidding, read it for yourself. Samuelson notes Fed plans to buy more Treasury bonds. He then warns of the “dangers.” He comments that the policy may prove ineffective — the Fed may be pushing on a string:
“But if all the cheap money spurs much higher economic growth, many of these reserves will turn into loans and raise the specter of higher inflation — ‘too much money chasing too few goods.’ The Fed would then have to withdraw or neutralize the added money through higher interest rates.”
That’s great, we’re sitting here in the most prolonged downturn since the Great Depression, with the inflation rate closing in on zero, and Samuelson is worried that we may get a burst of growth that could lead to higher inflation. Only in the Washington Post.